Homepage>How Can the South RISE AGAIN when the City Council LIES AGAIN?

How Can the South RISE AGAIN when the CIty Council LIES AGAIN?

How Can the South RISE AGAIN when the city council LIES AGAIN? By Lucinda Johnson of Meridian, Mississippi

Below is the text of a letter I wrote to the Meridian, Mississippi City Council, asking to be placed on the agenda for the April 21, 2009 meeting to present new evidence regarding crimes committed by city administration. As you can see, I asked for an hour to present evidence, and I told the city council that other people were going to be part of the presentation. Their answer to me was that I would be given 5 minutes, and none of the other presenters was given any time, other than 3 minutes each, at the end, which are afforded to any citizen.

OF COURSE, NO EVIDENCE CAN BE PRESENTED IN THAT SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME. THE CITY COUNCIL IS REALLY GOOD AT CENSORING AND BLOCKING US FROM PRESENTING THE EVIDENCE WE HAVE TO THEM. THEREFORE, OBVIOUSLY, WE HAVE NEVER BEEN ALLOWED TO PRESENT THE EVIDENCE WE HAVE WHICH PROVES THE ALLEGATIONS OF WRONGDOING.

Mary Perry, the president of the council, lied again and said that the city council cannot do any investigating because they are a legislative body, not an investigative one. (Then how does she explain that part of the MS Code 21-8-27, below, which states “the council shall have the POWER TO INVESTIGATE”???) What is it about these people that they cannot even see or hear the law that is presented before them?

THE COUNCIL HAS THE POWER TO INVESTIGATE!

MS Code 21-8-27: “…the councilshall have THE POWER TO INVESTIGATE any part of the municipal government and for that purpose to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents and other evidence.”

It seems that the city council is deaf! And blind! They cannot see or hear the law quoted, above. Mrs. Perry read an excerpt from a letter written by Attorney General Jim Hood’s office, supposedly backing up their stance that they could not investigate.

I was later able to obtain a copy of that "letter," which Mary Perry refused to give me, stating that she did not have to give it to me. I obtained a copy from Phil Carter of the MS Attorney General’s Office, who wrote it. As it turns out, the letter was not even addressed to her, and it does not back up the stance she was trying to take. Mary Perry misled the public and tried to fool us into thinking that the attorney general’s office had written something which backed up her false statement that the city council has no power to investigate! Mary Perry and the other members of the Meridian City Council are REFUSING TO LOOK AT EVIDENCE, EVEN THOUGH THE LAW CLEARLY STATES THAT THEY HAVE THE POWER TO DO SO.

By the way, that “letter” was actually what is called an “opinion,” and it was not written to Mary Perry, but to the attorney for the City of Booneville, MS, who had apparently requested this opinion in 2006. In a nutshell, the opinion had to do with whether or not citizens could address, at a meeting, comments made by the mayor if the subject he brought up was not on the agenda. (Apparently the mayor of that town had brought up a subject that was not on the agenda, and a citizen wanted to comment on that subject.)

NICE TRY, MS. PERRY, BUT THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE LAW I QUOTED ABOVE, WHICH CLEARLY STATES THAT “THE CITY COUNCIL HAS THE POWER TO INVESTIGATE ANY PART OF THE MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT AND FOR THAT PURPOSE TO COMPEL THE ATTENDANCE OF WITNESSES AND THE PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS AND OTHER EVIDENCE.”

LET’S FACE IT, EVERYONE—THE CITY COUNCIL JUST DOES NOT WANT TO LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE. I think that it is almost comical that Ms. Perry had to scramble and dig up this unrelated opinion, in an effort to come up with just one more tactic to “shut us up” about the mayor’s crimes. She resorted to trickery. My thinking after the meeting, when she denied me a copy was, “If this really says what she is portraying, why wouldn’t she want to give me a copy?” She was angry on a subsequent occasion when she found out that I was able to obtain a copy of this document that she tried to hide from us.

And, also, we should ask, why WOULDN'T they want to look at the evidence? They must be "in bed" with the "bad guys." What other reason could there be...after all everyone wants to leave something better for the children's future, and wouldn't investigating crime and cleaning up this city ethically and morally be first priority? This opportunity is being handed to them on a silver platter, and they are rejecting it.

Now we can see why members of the public have attitudes like one woman who spoke right out from her seat at the meeting on April 21st, and said (something like): “I can’t believe that this is the way city government is run. Is that how it works?” She was appalled. George Thomas laughed and said, “Yes.”

Randle Jennings spoke and said that he feels like this city has been run by a dictator and that he wants to give the government back to the people, and that is why he is running for office.

Some of you reading this are probably from Meridian, and you don’t even care. You are like a gang member who stays back and watches the hideout, but is anxious to share in the ill-gotten gains when the gang gets back. You drive a Cadillac and don’t care where the money came from. You don’t care who was stolen from or hurt in the process; you turn a blind eye and a deaf ear, because, after all, you “got yours.”

If you don’t speak out, doesn’t that make you just like the city council? After all, they don’t want to investigate the mayor because they “got theirs,” and they don’t want to mess that up. Ethics, law, and morality be damned, as far as the city council is concerned. It ain’t a pothole; it’s just people’s lives and property.

Again, I ask, WHY WOULDN’T THEY WANT TO (INVESTIGATE)? Let’s examine this fact: it’s not just that they don’t want to (as in apathy)... the proof is in: the Meridian City Council is involved in the corruption. Let’s look at the comments/actions of the various individuals:

1. Jesse Palmer is the one who told us: “you were supposed to pack your bags and run after (they burned your house),” and “don’t you know what they did to Martin Luther King when they couldn’t stop him? They had him killed,” and “If I was mad at you I’d tell you to your face and hit you with a 2 by 4—not these people; these people are sneaky. They’ll go behind the scenes, and there is no limit to their capability.” It looks like he was trying to warn us, but then he ultimately became a participant…

At one point, he was supposed to come to the Mt. Zion Headquarters and Ministry Residence to look at evidence, but never came, and when asked why, said that “lawyers” had told him he could be in trouble if he did; one of the names mentioned was “Hammack” (Meridian City Attorney).

Subsequent to this, Jesse Palmer acted rudely towards us, saying to Pastor Demers and his wife that they had better “shut up.” Yes, they’ve gotten to everybody—even people like Jesse Palmer.

2. John Harris has been extremely mean and vicious to us and has told us to “get out of town.”

3. George Thomas acted like a madman when we tried to sit down with him in his office to show him evidence. It was frightening.

Also, prior to that, at a city council meeting, Pastor Demers stated that he would like to show evidence of the wrongdoing which we were alleging was done by city administration. William Hammack, the Meridian city attorney, started to say, “I think that is a good idea…” But George Thomas stopped him cold, putting his hand up and saying, “You can’t present that evidence here.”

4. Barbara Henson admitted to me privately that the city council does not want to look at evidence (not that they can’t, they don’t want to). (This was after she tried to tell me that the city council can’t investigate. They all tell the same lie until I quote them the law. Then it changes from “we can’t” to “we don’t want to.”)

Also, she told me that her husband’s last words to her before he died were, to the effect of: “don’t do anything to help those people" (meaning us). (It is interesting to note that her husband worked for the Meridian Fire Department for many years, and Meridian firemen were pallbearers at his funeral.)

5. Mary Perry lied (again) at the April 21st meeting, saying that it is not the city council’s job to look at evidence, that they are a legislative body, not an investigative body.

NEWS FLASH!!!!! I AM NOT A LAWYER, BUT I UNCOVERED STILL ANOTHER LAW IN THE MS CODE WHICH STATES THAT THE CITY COUNCIL HAS THE POWER TO INVESTIGATE:

SEC. 21-8-13. General powers and duties of council.

(4) The council, in addition to such other powers and duties as may be conferred upon it by this chapter or otherwise by general law, may require any municipal officer, in its discretion, to prepare and submit sworn statements regarding his official duties, and otherwise to investigate the conduct of any department, office or agency of the municipal government.

INVESTIGATE…INVESTIGATE…INVESTIGATE…INVESTIGATE! The city council may INVESTIGATE! INVESTIGATE! INVESTIGATE! INVESTIGATE!

Instead of lying to the citizenry and saying that they don’t have the power (when the law clearly states that they DO) why can’t they just TELL US THE TRUTH, and say, “WE CAN SEE FROM THE LAW YOU QUOTED THAT, YES, WE HAVE THE POWER TO INVESTIGATE. HOWEVER, WE DO NOT WANT TO.”

We know why—if they did that, they would have to admit that they are corrupt, and they can’t do that! They want to keep DECEIVING THE PEOPLE into believing that they are the good guys. I mean, why else wouldn’t they want to investigate? According to the law above they could even investigate the police department if they wanted to! MS Code 21-8-13 says that they can investigate the conduct of ANY department of the municipal government! Why aren’t these people doing this?

Obviously this law is on the books…surely Mr. Hammack, the city attorney, is aware of this law…either the city council is lying, or Mr. Hammack lied to them, or, they are just plain stupid.

Obviously there are serious crimes that have been committed in the city—arson, assaults, threats—this should be their highest priority. Who are they kidding?

By the way, ask yourself if you are like them…sitting home, quietly enjoying your life while fellow citizens are hurt and you do nothing and say nothing…saying, in your heart, “I could do something…write a letter, make a phone call, go with these people to the city council meetings or wherever…but I just DON’T WANT TO.”

Re: Request to be placed on agenda to present evidence and witnesses to Meridian City Council, in accordance with MS Code 21-8-27: “the councilshall have the power to investigate any part of the municipal government and for that purpose to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents and other evidence.”

WE UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS NOT A POTHOLE OR AN ART-DECO BUILDING…WE ASK THAT SERIOUS CONSIDERATION BE GIVEN TO US ACCORDING TO THE SEVERE NATURE OF THE MATTERS AT HAND!

Dear Ms. McInnis:

I, as Executive Assistant to Christ’s Church in Action, would like to request to be placed on the agenda for the City Council meeting on April 21, 2009, to present new evidence which has surfaced regarding crimes committed by members of the municipal government here in Meridian. The evidence proves that there was no proper police investigation into the arson which was committed against Christ’s Church in Action (CCIA), and that city officials covered up this fact, and even actively blocked the investigation. There is evidence to prove that city officials played an active role in stopping this investigation. In addition to myself, there will be others both from CCIA and those who are not affiliated with CCIA who will be part of the presentation.

This is in accordance with Section 21-8-27 of the MS Code, which states that the city council “shall have the power to investigate any part of the municipal government and for that purpose to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents and other evidence.”

A former Chicago policeman (10 yrs. on the force) and a current lieutenant with the Chicago Fire Department have both recently commented, after listening and viewing evidence, that they can see clearly that something is clearly and seriously wrong with the way this was handled, and that Meridian is in serious trouble if this is not looked into. A Meridian police lieutenant has said that what has been done is “criminal.” In addition, many, many members of the community, as they have been starting to find out about this situation, have been saying to me in recent months that they are shocked and outraged by this.

The only reason they didn’t already know is because the media never printed anything about it. Now that the public is finding out, through other channels such as The Arm of Justice in New England, they are shocked that this kind of thing has gone on and that it has been happening here without their knowledge.

This case is made much more serious by the fact that the “criminal” investigation into the arson was not done properly, and in fact was a deception, used to fool both law enforcement and government into thinking that an investigation was done. This, coupled with the de facto media blackout, has effectively kept the members of city government (whom the city council should be investigating) from being brought to justice for their crimes.

A member of the city council, in a phone call to me, and in a separate phone call on another day to the pastor of CCIA, said the following:

·“Don’t you know that you were supposed to pack your bags and run after (they burned your house)?”

· “Don’t you know what they did to Martin Luther King when they couldn’t stop him? They had him killed.”

· “If I was mad at you I’d tell you to your face and hit you with a 2 by 4—not these people; these people are sneaky—they’ll go behind the scenes—and there is no limit to their capability.”

On a subsequent occasion this councilman had made an appointment to come to the parsonage to look at

evidence, and when he failed to show up and I called him, he said that he had been warned by lawyers not to look at the evidence or he could be in trouble… and the name “Hammack” surfaced during the discussion of this “warning.”

Due to the courageousness of some ranking members of the Meridian Police Department, we have been able to obtain some raw documents from the police computers, proving one of the officer’s allegations that the detective’s actions in not investigating this arson were “criminal.”

We’ve also been told on various occasions that the mayor himself, the chief of police, and a certain officer have ordered their subordinates not to take our complaints or investigate any individual working for the city of Meridian or the police department.

Of course, all of this is in violation of local city, state, county, and federal laws and the constitution.

Certainly the section of the law quoted above must have been penned with situations like this in mind, when corruption is obviously happening in the deprivation of people’s rights in the city, so the city council could take that responsibility in the law to investigate.

Please let me know how much time we will be allotted. I need an ample and adequate amount of time to effectively present this serious evidence of wrongdoing. The presentation, to be done properly, would most likely take about 3 hours; I realize that this is probably not in the scope of your possibility, although, according to the law above I would think that the council would make the time due to the seriousness of the crimes. I do, however, expect that, due to the serious nature of the matters, and because I am writing well in advance, that I will be given the utmost consideration, and that we will be given at least an hour to make the presentation.

I will await your written response. Thank you very much.

Sincerely yours,

Lucinda Johnson

Executive Assistant

P.S. The fact that we have new evidence does not negate or change the fact that we have never been given adequate time in the past to present evidence. (This new evidence only adds strength to what we have been saying all along.) We have been gagged and thwarted by the council and treated rudely; we have not been treated as citizens who are victims of crime should be treated by the council: with courtesy, respect, consideration, and a listening attitude. It is our hope that this is a time for change, and that we will be given the time and respect that is due us as citizens.

Can you believe that the City Council is trying to float the lie that they don't have to look into this? They think that the citizens are so stupid that they will believe that lie. It is all too obvious that they are actively involved in the cover up of these crimes.